Nelson Mandela: Memorable moments

A chief's son. Pioneer. Revolutionary. Prisoner. Statesman. Elder.

Few modern-day world leaders are revered as much as Nelson Rolihlahla
Mandela. Then again, few can lay claim to a life like Mandela's. His
father had a premonition when he granted his son the birth name,
Rolihlahla — which roughly translates to "pull a tree branch" or,
colloquially, "troublemaker."

The campaign to free Mandela, 1978:

International interest rose again when Mandela turned 60. He was 18 years into a life sentence on Robben Island. There, an iron sanitary bucket was his toilet, a single letter could come only once a month, a monthly visitor was allowed for 30 minutes, and he pounded stones in a lime quarry. Throughout his time, however, Mandela read prodigiously and studied law. The government had tried to erase his existence,

The campaign to free Mandela, 1978:

International interest rose again when Mandela turned 60. He was 18 years into a life sentence on Robben Island. There, an iron sanitary bucket was his toilet, a single letter could come only once a month, a monthly visitor was allowed for 30 minutes, and he pounded stones in a lime quarry. Throughout his time, however, Mandela read prodigiously and studied law. The government had tried to erase his existence, banning his images and words, but the apartheid regime shocked the world and South Africa itself when police fired on a peaceful march of high school students, in the 1976 Soweta Youth Uprising. The African National Congress regained credibility, as did Mandela as its leader in abstentia. When the United Nations expressed solidarity with the country’s liberation movements, 85,000 people signed petitions for Mandela's release. less